The production of printed circuit boards is an expensive undertaking, and many extraordinary measures are routinely taken to ensure the highest possible production quality. Automated optical inspection (AOI) harnesses the power, speed, and reliability of computer technology to assist with the task of inspection of printed circuit boards for defects. Existing automated optical inspection (AOI) systems, such as the PC-14 Micro™ and Blaser™ AOI systems, are available from Orbotech of Yavne, Israel.
As used herein, the term “printed circuit board” will be understood to refer in general to any electrical circuit on any substrate, including printed circuit boards, multi-chip modules, ball grid array substrates, integrated circuits and other suitable electrical circuits.